31 Sculptures Installed In Madison Square Park and on the Top of Buildings Throughout New York City’s Flatiron District and Environs. Event Horizon, a new public art installation by internationally acclaimed British artist Antony Gormley is a landmark public art project. New York City’s skyline to plays host to contemporary art, placing thirty-one sculptures of the human form in and around Madison Square Park and on the setbacks and rooftops of architectural treasures throughout the Flatiron district and environs. The ceremony for the Mad. Sq. Art-presented installation commenced in Madison Square Park with remarks by New York City Officials, Artist Antony Gormley and President of the Madison SquarePark Conservancy Debbie Landau. The first installation to take art out of Madison Square Park and into the Manhattan skyline in the history of Mad. Sq. Art, Event Horizon remains on view through August 15, 2010.

Sponsored by the San Francisco Arts Commission, artist Patrick Dougherty and his team have been hard at work assembling, twisting, bending and manipulating 18,000 lbs. of willow branches to create and extraordinary row of hive like structures–each different, intimate, and together at once. The installation, called The Upper Crust, has been in progress since February 5th and will continue until the 26th. I spent my lunch break watching them fit branches to create these unusual environmental sculptures. The branches are the only thing used to create them, strictly organic and build and meld into the next. I asked them how far along the row of trees they were planning on going, at that time they were unsure. I would love to see the whole row filled with those hives.

The installation will continue into November, which means a spring and summer of tree growth to evolve the sculpture even further. I cannot wait to see what it becomes. More information about the project can be found on the San Francisco Arts Commission page and more information about Patrick Dougherty can be seen on his sight, appropriately called Stick Work.